We have a better suggestion: take the money away from Mexico and
Colombia, have the narcos return to their countries of origin. Make an
air bridge and import the drugs legally into the US. Mexico prospers,
Colombia prospers, the US takes care of their problem and we are out of
this idiotic war on drugs.

A proposed plan to solve California’s budget crisis would reduce the
state’s prison population by 27,000, it was reported Tuesday, as
opposition to the new fiscal deal mounted.

The Los Angeles Times reported
that the budget deal, announced by California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger and bipartisan lawmakers on Monday, would involve the
early release of thousands of inmates.

The Times said the reduction would be achieved through a combination
of measures including allowing prisoners to finish their sentences on
home detention and creating incentives for completion of drug
rehabilitation plans.

Mail-in voting closes Tuesday on Measure F, a new ordinance in Oakland
which would impose a special tax on sales of medical marijuana in the
city's dispensaries. The measure would make Oakland the first city in
the United States to have a business tax category for marijuana
merchants.

Zetas started as elite Mexican soldiers trained in the U.S. at the School of the Americas by U.S.,
French and Israeli specialists to be able to take down Mexican cartels.
Instead, they became the most dangerous cartel of all. [$50M bounty]

Federal authorities are investigating whether a group of Washington
area police officers took money to protect a high-stakes gambling ring
frequented by some of the region's most powerful drug dealers over the
past two years, according to internal police documents and law
enforcement sources.

The officers include five veterans in Prince George's County, a
District police official and a former D.C. Housing Authority officer.
Two under investigation have been spotted on police surveillance
outside gambling sites, including one providing security in tactical
gear. Witnesses have alleged that others wore police uniforms and drove
marked cruisers to gatherings. One was arrested in a police raid
outside a game with a handgun.

A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would
generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state,
according to an official analysis. Estimates marijuana retail sales would bring $990 million from a $50-per-ounce fee and $392 million in sales taxes.

[Tax & regulate] will keep the state's drug warriors giddy with power and tax-subsidized
weaponry as they continue to kick in doors and beat in heads of those
participating in the officially illegal marijuana trade.

Judge John Delaney didn't throw the book at him -- he was sentenced to
one year in jail, with all but 45 days suspended -- but threw him a
curveball instead. While under the court's supervision for the next
year, Newland must not exercise his First Amendment right to advocate
for marijuana law reform in South Dakota.

A pro-marijuana group is launching another television bid to
legalize pot in California — this time with the pitch that legalizing
and taxing the drug could help solve the state's massive budget deficit.

The
30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy
Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state
leaders "are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes."

The statistics are frightening. Seven of the top ten drugs being abused by teenagers today are legal prescriptions or over-the-counter medications. The intentional abuse of prescription drugs has been identified by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as the second most abused substance by teenagers. Marijuana still ranks first but it is quickly followed by painkillers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives.

“After 40 years of such publicity stunts and bravado
from cops and prosecutors, the citizens know a circus show when they see
it. When parents were young, they could
buy pot, LSD, qualudes, etc., with 1-2 phone calls. Today their teen offspring can buy pot,
heroin or X with 1-2 phone calls—at cheaper prices and much stronger
purity.

Mexican prosecutors announced Sunday they have put 93 police
officers and investigators under house arrest on suspicion of aiding
the Zetas, a feared gang of hit men tied to the Gulf drug cartel.

Corruption scandals have long plagued Mexican law enforcement, but
the detentions represented one of the biggest single roundups of
suspected officers in recent years. It came as investigators have been
increasingly reporting finds of apparent payroll lists of police
officers in the possession of drug traffickers.

Mr. Kubby and his team of scientists are developing more effective ways
to produce and commercialize the production of whole plant
cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products. His new company, Cannabis Science Inc. (NASD OTCBB: CBIS), brings an opportunity to the libertarian community which has rarely, if ever, been offered before.

“[British] papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by
police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and
placed it over a suspect’s face to simulate the experience of
drowning,” reported the Associated Press.
“The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects’
heads in buckets of water. The reason for the discrepancy was not
immediately clear.”

It is unsurprising that folks who are immersed in economic thinking agree that the drug war cannot work. I admit that that was the road taken to my personal position and no other issues have actually been able to give me room for modification of that position. Plainly human actions have economic consequences and governmental actions have direct influence on those consequences. It follows as night follows day that successfully modifying human outcomes must first come from effective government action.

Some pilots have been sent to
Afghanistan under duress or as punishment for bucking their superiors.

Such
complaints, so far mostly arising from the DEA's Aviation Division,
could complicate the Obama administration's efforts to send dozens of
additional DEA agents to Afghanistan as part of a civilian and military
personnel "surge" that aims to stabilize the country.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.
“We’ve spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs,” Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. “What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It’s a dismal failure.”

by Ron Paul. Last week, another bill was passed and signed into law that takes more
of our freedoms and violates the Constitution of the United States. It
was, of course, done for the sake of the children, and in the name of
the health of the citizenry. It’s always the case that when your
liberty is seized, it is seized for your own good. Such is the
condescension of Washington. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco
Control Act will give sweeping new powers over tobacco to the FDA. It
will require everyone engaged in manufacturing, preparing, compounding,
or processing tobacco to

With 50% of the U.S. tobacco market already safely in the company's
pocket — and more than 50% of 18- to 25-year-old smokers loyal to its
top brand, Marlboro — restrictive legislation will effectively lock in
its market dominance, preventing any competitors from taking a bite out
of Philip Morris' very lucrative business.

Landmark legislation approved by the Senate yesterday will give the
federal government sweeping new powers to oversee tobacco products,
allowing regulators to control factors including the amount of
addictive nicotine in a cigarette and how that cigarette is packaged
and marketed.